Have just bought a MB child seat for my youngest child which has a transponder. Seems to work fine but wondered what the transponder looked like and how it works. The manual that came with the seat doesnt say much! Faiz

What year/model is your car?

The BabySmart system works by the seat alerting the car of it's location, and the car shuts off the passenger airbag.

The transponder is located inside the car seat, and there is no way for you to access it.

The front passenger seat has the "second half" of the device.

Unless your car is an SLK or SL, put the kids in the rear and don't use the BabySmart.

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John Shellenberg
1998 C230 "Black Betty" 240K

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The transponder is a "chip" that is imbedded into the bottom of the seat.
Inside the passengers seat is what is referred to as an "antenna" which senses the presence of the seat, which through the miracle of electronics, tells the SRS control unit "Hey, child seat here, don't blow off the passengers side airbag in case of a deployment". MB's with this system (ACSR, automatic child seat recognition) have a small light which states "AIRBAG off". Some models such as the ML have it in the instrument cluster, some are on the right side of the center console near the shifter. Remember this is ONLY the passenger airbag, not the steering wheel bag or any of the side "door" bags.
The transponder works similarly to how the newer DAS keys work. With that system, the chip is in the key, and the collar around the ignition switch is an antenna which senses the transponder is there, then determines if it's the correct transponder for the car and will allow a start to take place.
Gilly

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Thanks for the info. I have a 2001 CLK 230 which has the child seat identifier and an airbag off light which goes out when the seat is installed. Just wondered how it all worked as I couldnt see any electrical bits on the child seat. Didnt realise it was embedded!